Dallas Stars Blog

Jack Campbell finishes off World Junior career with 2-1 win over Switzerland

It was not the kind of tournament that Team USA was hoping for, but Stars prospect Jack Campbell and the Americans kept their nose to the grindstone with a 2-1 win over Switzerland Wednesday to finish in seventh place at this year’s World Juniors.

U.S. National Junior Team Downs Switzerland, 2-1,
in its Final Game of the IIHF World Junior Championship
Team USA Wins Final Two Games of Tournament

CALGARY, Alta. — Jack Campbell (Port Huron, Mich./Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds) made 21 saves, including 16 in the final two periods, to help the U.S. National Junior Team defeat Switzerland, 2-1, this afternoon at the Scotiabank Saddledome in its final game of the 2012 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship.
With the win, Team USA finished the tournament in seventh place with a 3-0-0-3 (W-OTW-OTL-L) overall record.

“You always want to win your last game of any tournament and we did just that,” said Dean Blais, head coach of the U.S. National Junior Team. “I’m proud of our guys for giving their all to the end.”

The game’s only goals were scored in the final 8:30 of the opening period. Team USA’s Austin Czarnik (Washington, Mich./Miami Univ.) opened the scoring at 11:28 when he won a faceoff in the offensive zone, drove to the net and jammed his own rebound past Swiss goalie Tim Wolf. The Swiss tied the game just more than three minutes later, before Kevin Gravel (Kingsford, Mich./St. Cloud State Univ.) collected a pass from Adam Clendening (Niagara Falls, N.Y./Boston Univ.) and fired a slap shot past Wolf’s glove at 16:15 that proved to be the game-winning goal.

Campbell earned the 10th win of his IIHF World Junior Championship career (2010-12), which set a U.S. record.

NOTES: Jon Merrill (Brighton, Mich./Univ. of Michigan) was named Team USA’s Player of the Game … Team USA finished 0-for-5 on the power play, while Switzerland was 0-for-3 with the man advantage … Bill Arnold (Needham, Mass./Boston College), Austin Czarnik and Jarred Tinordi (Millersville, Md./London Knights) were named Team USA’s Best Three Players of the tournament … Austin Watson (Ann Arbor, Mich./Peterborough Petes) led Team USA with nine points (3-6), while Nick Bjugstad (Blaine, Minn./Univ. of Minnesota) and Charlie Coyle (East Weymouth, Mass./Boston Univ.) tied for the team lead with four goals in six games … Dean Blais, head men’s ice hockey coach at the University of Nebraska Omaha, served as head coach of the 2012 U.S. National Junior Team. He was assisted by Scott Sandelin, head men’s ice hockey coach at the University of Minnesota Duluth; Tom Ward, head ice hockey coach of the Shattuck-St. Mary’s School’s boys’ prep team; and Joe Exter, assistant men’s ice hockey coach at Ohio State University … Jim Johannson, USA Hockey’s assistant executive director of hockey operations, served as the general manager of Team USA for the third consecutive year. Tim Taylor (Guilford, Conn.), former U.S. Olympic Men’s Ice Hockey Team head coach and longtime Yale University men’s ice hockey team head coach, is also serving his third straight year as Team USA’s director of player personnel.

Here is an earlier entry on Campbell’s career with USA Hockey:

MMM-MMM GOOD — Team USA netminder
Jack Campbell is the most decorated
U.S. goaltender ever on the international
stage. He has won more gold
medals (3) than any other American
goaltender, having captured the top
prize at both the 2009 and 2010 IIHF
U18 Men’s World Championships and
again at the 2010 IIHF World Junior
Championship in Saskatoon, Sask. In
addition to his golden performances,
Campbell earned a bronze medal at the
2011 IIHF World Junior Championship,
where he was named the tournament’s
top goalie after posting a 4-1-0-1 (WOTW-
OTL-L) record, 1.70 goals-against
average and .941 save percentage. He
is just the second ever American goaltender
to play in three IIHF World Junior
Championships (Alan Perry, 1984-86)
and, with the victory over Latvia yesterday,
tied Al Montoya for most World
Junior Championship career victories by
a U.S. goaltender with nine. Finally,
Campbell was the youngest member of
the U.S. Men’s National Team at the
2011 IIHF Men’s World Championship in
Bratislava and Kosice, Slovakia. At that
tournament, Campbell dressed for one
game but did not see any playing time.
Overall, Campbell has amassed a 16-2-
1-4 record, 1.63 GAA and .940 save percentage
in IIHF play.